Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies has acknowledged that the team’s late-season push in 2025 has impacted their early 2026 performance, but insists the squad remains fully committed to regaining competitiveness under the new Formula 1 regulations.
After a dramatic 2025 season saw Max Verstappen mount an impressive comeback—ultimately falling just two points short of champion Lando Norris—Red Bull now finds itself facing a challenging start to 2026. The team has struggled with both reliability and pace under the new regulations, and is also navigating the complexities of producing its own power units in partnership with Ford for the first time.
Verstappen’s best result so far this season is sixth place, a stark contrast to his dominant run in the latter half of 2025, which included six wins from the final nine races. New teammate Isack Hadjar has also endured a tough start, leaving Red Bull sixth in the Constructors’ Standings, behind the likes of Alpine and Haas.
Reflecting on the previous season’s development choices, Mekies explained on the Beyond The Grid podcast that the team consciously chose to keep developing their 2025 car in pursuit of Verstappen’s fifth title, rather than shifting focus to the new regulations.
> “You would have been mad to do anything differently,” Mekies said. “Nobody wanted to turn the page. They all wanted to get to the bottom of that ‘25 car, get to the bottom of what didn’t work, and turn things around. And yes, they knew there would be a price to pay later, but that’s how deep the fighting spirit is in the team.”
Despite a difficult start to 2026—including a DNF for Verstappen in China and mid-field finishes in Australia and Japan—Mekies remains optimistic about the team’s prospects. He emphasized that Red Bull is not using the late push or the power unit transition as excuses.
> “We thought and still think it was the right thing to do… Now, of course, the time and energy we invested for the late push last year, does it have an impact on where you start ’26? Of course it does. Of course, we pay a bit of the price today. Do we use it as an excuse? No.”
Rejecting the idea of writing off 2026 as a “transition year,” Mekies reinforced that Red Bull is in “full attack mode” and working relentlessly to return to the front.
> “We want to make sure this is not a transition year. No. We are not at all in that mode. We are in full attack mode. There is fire in every single department in Milton Keynes, with a burning drive to become competitive again and outperform the competition.”
With determination and a proven ability to bounce back, Red Bull is aiming to overcome its early-season challenges and rejoin the fight at the top of the grid.
